Winter is here!

I love it…sledding, hot cocoa, snow ball fights with my kids.

From an artist’s perspective, winter is a wonderland of lavenders and golds, of beautiful contrasts and subtle tonal shifts.

Edge quality is one of those phrases we hear tossed around all the time by professional artists. What does that mean? What separates a stiff lifeless edge from one that gives vitality and the feeling of reality to a painting?

Painting edges that feel natural is a matter of intentional observation of nature. This snowy scene with the magical contrasts of light and shadow and  the tonal shifts between the snow and trees allowed me to play with broken and lost edges that enhanced the feeling of reality. In this video I discuss why lost edges are found in nature from the turning of bark planes to the bending of light around a tree trunk.

The painting in this video was completed last December and we (my family helps in the hours and hours of editing) just finished the full length video with voice over instruction for the membership site.  Once the editing is done I am able to make a fast motion video to put on YouTube. We put a bit of instruction in with it this time.

Hopefully this painting will inspire you to go out and observe all the intricacies and crisp color harmonies of winter.

So get out there and paint your own winter wonderland!

Happy painting,

Bill